I bet y’all thought when I said I’d be back later with a post that I meant later that same day.
And that is what I meant but then I filled up my day by sitting on the couch and staring into space.
But in my defense, I needed some sitting and staring time because this weekend was filled with muchas activities. It’s all part of my master plan to ensure that someday when Caroline writes her memoirs that I’ll get a shout out for making sure her life always included plenty of funnel cakes and face paint.
Fiesta, for those of y’all who know not of what I speak, is essentially a ten-day party held in San Antonio every year during April. I’m not sure of all the history and stuff because I don’t really care.
It just involves stuff like real-live fake royalty and a lot of parades.
I grew up in Beaumont and all we had was the Neches River Festival which is basically Fiesta’s poor cousin. On crack.
Oh I kid. The Neches River Festival is every bit as lovely as the Neches River itself.
Friday night we went to what used to be just a little neighborhood carnival with plenty o’ fun for the kids. You know, the type of place where you can drop $80.00 on bounce castles, a pony ride and some face paint, all the while eating carny food that will boost your cholesterol well into the 300′s.
Good times.
I’ll have the sausage stick with a Lipitor chaser.
However, over the years the little neighborhood carnival has developed the tendency to turn into a singles bar gone wrong after 8 p.m., so our strategy is to get there when the doors open at 5:30 and leave as the increasingly over-tan crowd in skimpy tank tops show up.
And that’s just the men.
But we still go every year because the carnival holds special meaning for P and me because it was at this same event eleven years ago that he watched me serve fountain drinks to the throngs of people and knew without a doubt that he was ready to propose to me within the week. So we attend every year for the nostalgia factor.
And the funnel cakes.
And the brisket tacos.
We promised Caroline she could get her face painted and with that accomplished we headed home before the meat market was in full swing.
Oh look! We also won a baby while we were there.
Not really, but that would have been cool. She belongs to our friends, W and E.
We spent the rest of the evening sitting on our back porch with some of our friends listening to the huge party our neighbors were having behind the walled fortress that used to be Tillie’s house.
No kidding. They built a wall. To ensure they don’t have to see the neighborhood.
I’m pretty sure it was our faded Little Tikes slide that pushed them over the edge.
Anyway, on Saturday morning Caroline was up before the sun in spite of being up way past her bedtime the night before.
In spite of a Saturday filled with meltdowns brought on by exhaustion, we still had to attend a birthday party for one of her classmates. The whole party was a Longhorn theme with instructions to wear your favorite game day apparel.
It is our job to spread light to a dark world.
Finally Sunday arrived and we spent the evening with some friends at another Fiesta event that involved the best homemade gorditas I have ever had, several bounce castles, and even more face painting.
Oh! And fireworks!
They were much better in person than in that showcase of my limited photography skills.
Caroline was in absolute awe of the fireworks until she decided it was more fun to roll down the hills on the golf course. And really, what’s better? Chinese manufactured pyrotechnics or the thrill of getting dizzy while getting grass stains all over a cute skirt that will never be the same again?
Then, mercifully, the weekend was over.
Yesterday morning, Caroline actually slept until 8:20 and woke up just in time for me to quickly get her dressed for school. I knew she was tired because she let me pick out her outfit and comb her hair without a fight.
But as I dropped her off at her classroom, I realized how tired I was from the weekend because I’d sent her to school with half a unicorn still on her face.
Viva fiesta.
I’ll go anywhere they’re handing out both babies and funnelcakes.
If ya’ll had of told me they serve funnel cakes in TX, I would have never began Starlite in TN! I mean, we have NOTHING here.
Unless you count Elvis. He’s still alive, you know.
Don’t you love those little neighborhood carnivals. We take our kids not only for the rides, but for the chance to see the local police department’s drug dog at work. Lots of fun.
Pretend there’s a question mark after the first sentence in the previous comment. Thank you.
I LOVE the last photo of the two of you together!
I love the photo of the two of you together, both of you so pretty. What a fun filled weekend you had, too funny about leaving the half a unicorn on Caroline’s face :0)
The look at on that baby’s face. Funny.
Caption- “Who is this kid holding me and why does she smell of funnel cakes?”
Love the top you are wearing!
VIVA GRANDE MAMA!
Wow, it sounds like you guys know how to party!
We have a few block parties where everyone brings their lawn chairs and we barbecue up really bad hamburgers. Does that count?
Have a great week!
Visit To Love, Honor and Vacuum today!
After the last carnival we went to, John spent 20 minutes watching Kati throw up outside the entrance to the WalMart. By the cart corral. And nobody getting a cart seem to care. They just stepped around her and got their carts.
Memories.
Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em.
Love the recap. Sounds like a great week.
Sure wish Western PA offered a similar week of fried foods and non-removeable face paints.
You two look so much alike! So sweet. Love your shirt!
I love that last picture of the two of you…beautiful.
Don’t feel bad about half the tatoo. At my son’s school, they stamp his hand with some little mouse saying “Time to pay for lunch” or something like that when he runs out of lunch money. We always forget to wash it off, so he wears it to school the next day and sometimes the next day…
That sounds like a perfect (and tiring) weekend.
(your shirt looks really cute)
This “I’ll have the sausage stick with a Lipitor chaser.” cracked me up.
and this “increasingly over-tan crowd in skimpy tank tops show up. And that’s just the men.”
So you saw my brother there, eh?
You and Caroline are beautiful!!
I’m getting tired just reading all the stuff you did.
“And that was just the men.”
Can’t. Stop. Laughing.
Love, love, love the Aggie jersey. That was truly the only appropriate choice for party wear.
By the way, what are your thoughts on the Aggie baseball team’s caps this year (with the white front)?
Precious! What a fun weekend and what a pretty mommy and daughter.
I am a bad parent. I hate those carnivals and avoid them whenever possible.
I LOVE the last picture too. How cute you two are! And love the shirt!
You. Crack. Me. Up.
Witness:
“Oh I kid. The Neches River Festival is every bit as lovely as the Neches River itself.” –Sister, when you say that, you’ve said a mouthful. My dad grew up in Woodville, just up the road a piece. And I’m not sure “lovely” is the word I’d use!
“However, over the years the little neighborhood carnival has developed the tendency to turn into a singles bar gone wrong after 8 p.m.” –We’ve lived in SA about 5 years, and we tried to go to NIOSA the first year…way too crowded. So we opted for a carnival by the Market…which had already taken a turn for the worse. It’s a shame the events aren’t a little more family-friendly.
“It is our job to spread light to a dark world.” –Which is precisely why my hubby & I like to wear our Baylor gear in the midst of our Aggie families!
I cannot believe you sent her to a Longhorn party dressed like that! THAT is hilarious!
Forgot to add that I LOVE your Mexican dress-blouse. So cute!
Not only does Beaumont have the Neches River Festival it also has Mardi Gras and the Southeast Texas Fair. You should come check it out. Lots of parades,rides, food on a stick, and funnel cakes! Oh yeah don’t forget the Lipitor chaser. By the way cute shirt!
I love your shirt in that last photo! Where did you get it?
Sounds like such a fun weekend! We visited during Fiesta Week last year, but didn’t mean to come then, that just happened to be when our trip was…We had a great time!
“The Neches River Festival is every bit as lovely as the Neches River itself.”
And they are both every bit as lovely as the beach in Galveston or Crystal. I mean, hey, who wants to see the bull shark as it swims toward you in the gulf, and who wants to see the alligator approach in the Neches???
But just you wait…I will have the boys in a kayak on Village Creek before too long!!! Snakes? What snakes?
ohhhhhhhhhh, how i miss fiesta! i worked niosa myself for several years, altho i cannot remember wh booth. i do know that we would high-tail it out of there b4 8 also. and that was 20 years ago. will you all go to the king william fair? i actually brought my dtr down 3 years ago when a friend fr here was a duchess in the battle of flowers…we loved it. there is nothing like the smell of stale beer and fried food in 90 degree spring weather at 10 in the morning. nothing.
What a darling picture of you and Doodle!
what a fun filled weekend! love that last picture–pure sweetness! (does that come from all the funnel cakes?)
I’m sighing here with jealousy. We’ve had rain since Saturday and it has been so nasty. A fun Fiesta sounds like some much fun.
Caroline looks awful comfy with that little baby (wink, wink). LOL She looks so cute in the one picture of her in the pink dress with her face painted. I love how the face paint matches the outfit. That girl is so stylish.
Sounds like y’all had a great weekend. It is one of those weekends where you need a vacation from it.
Hope you and Caroline have a great Earth Day!
NIOSA on Wednesday night is a blast. Any other night, pure torture. We haven’t been in several years, because stupid jobs get in the way. They expect us to show up.
You really haven’t lived though until you sit out in the hot sun at the Menger hotel and watch the parade. It is a sauna with all of your clothes on. My native SA husband loves, loves this, and gets teary when the Aggie band comes around the corner.
I so love your mexican wedding dress.
Yay! That was adorable!
I love the flowers in her hair in the last pic. I used to love going to festivals to get those.
Sigh…sometimes I wish I was a kid again…
Emily
http://www.twodogsrunningsouth.blogspot.com/
You are such a good mama. Caroline will have so many good memories to draw on for the rest of her life. Hooray for fiesta!
That picture of you two is awesome. Okay, where can I find a homemade gordita? Is it wrong to want that at 10:15 in the morning?
Really I need to know… Do you make Caroline’s hair bows? Do you buy them? I just can’t tie a pretty bow like that… My daughter needs hair bows like that, please help a sister out here!
That looks like a wonderful, exhausting weekend!
And now, a Fashion Friday request. Pleeeeze tell us more about where you find Caroline’s cute clothes! Seriously, we need a Fashion Friday dedicated to the cuteness of girl outfits, along with all of the necessary accessories like shoes and bows!
Bring on the Funnel Cakes!
Y’all come check out Operation Oblivious that’s taking place tonight on my blog!
http://swtbamamamaof2.blogspot.com/2008/04/operation-obliviousjoin-in-on-fun.html
Cute photo of you two. Man, they give away babies? Our are just crappy, straw-stuffed animals and plastic blow-up toys. Gotta. Get. to San Antonio…
Now I’m craving Mexican. And all I have near my house is Taco Bell, which just isn’t the same as a tacqueria.
GORGEOUS picture of you and Caroline, by the way. I bet that will go on the back cover of the memoir.
Oh, your shirt is darlin’! Just darlin’!
And did you use P’s brush hairdryer on your hair? Because it looks like you’re rockin’ some VERY sassy curls.
Sounds like my kind of food and fun. I love that picture of you and Caroline, and as Sophie said, that blouse is really pretty and it looks great on you.
But honey, are y’all gettin’ enough to eat? Y’all need some meat on your bones!
LOL! I see there are no 2 percenters living in your house!!
Xandra
Okay, I have two questions:
1. Was Caroline allowed entrance to the birthday party? Cuz, yeah, I’m not that nice. Blasphemy.
2. Where did you get your darling top?!! Do tell. I will rush out and get one and we can be twinkies for our lunch date!
I moved to North Dallas a year ago from San Antonio and I miss fiesta. So much good food and drinks. Niosa was the highlight of fiesta. Hope you are having a great time!!
I love love love that Caroline wore her aggie pride to the Longhorn party! Whoop!
Raise a child up in the way she should go and she will not depart from it.
Y’all are so stinking, squealing, cheek-pinching cute that I’m gonna let that snide remark about my ‘Horns slide. Yeah: that’s SOME kind of cute.
(But really and truly? They actually expected all party guests, regardless of their own personal opinion or persuasion, to dress in burnt orange? Oh, my.)
Can we have the recipe for homemade gorditas?
How in the world did you keep that shirt pristine white in south texas in april at a carnival?
Love, love, love the A&M attire at a Longhorn party!
Did you know you can buy funnel cake mix at the grocery store and make them at home? I’ve done it, but somehow its not the same.
The picture of the two of you is adorable!!! I love Caroline’s precious outfits in this post. And these Fiestas are making want to move to San Antonio.
You two are adorable! We were go-go this weekend too. I feel for us.
That picture of ya’ll is so good! Two pretty girls just livin’ la vida loca!
I sure do miss my days of living in San Antonio and going to Fiesta. Nothin’ like it.
Hook ‘em
What a beauty, your girl! She looks like her mama
I have another thing to say (is that surprising?).
You are STILL so adorable! And C is cute, too. I know I’ve said it before but you seriously look like you’re 25.
Cute pic! I luv that shirt you have on-
reminds me of those mexican dresses that I wore in the eight grade with a bow tied around the waist-
Anyway, it is very very cute!
Melanie, you and your daughter are beautiful!
ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE pictures!! Your Caroline is an angel!
Caroline is a cutie-patootie! Let the grass stains become part of the pattern. And if it was a solid-Look! Now, it’s a pattern!
Hey! I am from the east coast, but my husband and I were is SA Sun-Tues and got to expericnce a little of the Fiesta. What fun! I bought the same halo to take home to my daughter as a souvenir.
LoL @ “we won a baby.” Too funny!
I think this might be a relationship killer: I have lived in SA for 18 years and have never been to a single Fiesta event. That’s probably because I once got stuck for two hours on Market Street during Fiesta because I was trying to go to the AMC Rivercenter and didn’t KNOW it was Fiesta. Two hours in a car just trying to get .4 miles to the parking lot. And that was the end of my Fiesta love.
Now if there’s a river parade for the Spurs, though, I’ll be there.
It’s funny you mention about writing memoirs. Miley Cyrus is only 15, but she just signed a seven-figure deal to write her memoirs and it is supposed to be all about mothers and daughters making memories together. http://www.usmagazine.com/miley-cyrus-to-write-memoirs
Childhood memories…priceless? Maybe not so much.
Y’all are so cute in this picture – I just love your Fiesta Fashion!!
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